The ministry had fallen. M. _le préfet_ Worms-Clavelin felt neither
surprise nor regret at this. In the depths of his heart he had always
considered it too restless and too disturbing, an object of suspicion,
and not without reason, to the agriculturist, the large merchant, and
the small investor. Without affecting the fortunate indifference of
the masses, this cabinet had exercised, to the _préfet’s_ grief, a
vexatious influence over freemasonry, the organisation by which, for
fifteen years past, the whole political life of the department had
been drawn together and held in check. M. _le préfet_ Worms-Clavelin
had been able to turn the masonic lodges of the department into boards
vested with the preliminary choice of candidates for public offices,
for electoral functions, and for party favours. Exercising in this way
wide and definite prerogatives, the lodges, being as much opportunist
as they were radical, combined, acted in concert with one another, and
worked together for the republican cause. The _préfet_, rejoicing
to see the ambition of some restraining the desires of others,
gathered together, on the joint recommendation of the lodges, a band
of senators, deputies, municipal councillors and road-surveyors, all
equally loyal to the government, yet sufficiently diverse in opinion
and sufficiently moderate to satisfy and reassure all republican
parties, save the socialists. M. _le préfet_ Worms-Clavelin had brought
about this unanimity. And now the radical ministry must needs break up
so happy a harmony.
Ill-luck decreed that the holder of one of the minor portfolios
(either agriculture or commerce) should travel through the department
and stop for some hours in the county town. It sufficed for him to
deliver a philosophic and moral speech at one assembly to flutter
all the assemblies, divide each lodge into two, set brother against
brother, and infuriate citizen Mandar, the chemist of the Rue Culture,
master of the lodge “New Alliance,” and a radical, against M. Tricoul,
vine-grower of Les Tournelles, master of the lodge “Sacred Friendship,”
and an opportunist.
Mentally M. Worms-Clavelin made another complaint against the
fallen ministry: that of having lavishly distributed academic
decorations and given Orders of Merit for agricultural proficiency to
radical-socialists only, thus robbing the _préfet_ of the advantage of
governing with the aid of these decorations, or at least by means of
tardily fulfilled promises of them.
M. _le préfet_ expressed his thoughts accurately as, alone in his
study, he murmured these bitter words:
“If they believed they could play at politics by upsetting my loyal
lodges and fastening my useful palms to the tail of every drunken dog
in the department, they’ll find themselves finely mistaken!”
Thus it was that he heard of the fall of the ministry without any
regret.
Besides, these changes that he had foreseen never surprised him.
His administrative policy was always founded on the assumption that
minister succeeds minister. He made a point of never serving a Home
Secretary with ardent zeal. He refrained from being over-pleasing
to any one, and shunned all opportunities of doing too well. This
moderation, kept up during the continuance of one ministry, assured
him the sympathy of the next one, thus sufficiently predisposed in his
favour to acquiesce in its turn in the half-hearted zeal, which became
a claim to the favour of a third cabinet. M. _le préfet_ Worms-Clavelin
reigned without ruling, corresponded briefly with the Place Beauvau,[G]
manœuvred the boards, and stayed in office.
[G] Where the French Home Office is situated.
In his study, through the half-open windows of which came the scent of
flowering lilacs and the twittering of sparrows, he was meditating,
in a gentle and peaceful mood, on the lingering extinction of the
scandals which on two occasions had gone near to ruining the leaders
of the party. He looked forward to the day, still far distant, on
which it would again be possible to resume activity. He reflected
that, in spite of passing difficulties, and notwithstanding the
discord unluckily communicated to the masonic lodges and the electoral
committees, he would have capital municipal elections. The mayors in
this agricultural district were excellent. The spirit of the populace
was so loyal that the two deputies, who, being compromised in several
financial transactions, were threatened with legal proceedings, had
yet retained all their influence in their districts. He said to
himself that the _scrutin de liste_[H] would never have produced such
favourable results. In his exaltation of mind thoughts that were almost
philosophic came to the surface of his mind as to the ease with which
men can be governed. He had a confused vision of this human beast
allowing itself to be led, and straggling along in tireless gloomy
tractableness beneath the eye of the shepherding dog.
[H] In which each voter inscribes on his paper as many names
as there are vacancies to be filled.